All the ingredients seemed to be there. A lush, but desolate setting. Creepy inbreds. Unsuspecting young people from the city... but somehow it just doesn't mesh well together. Just Before Dawn is a well-known horror film from the early 1980s that has only recently been released on DVD. Disaster movie veteran George Kennedy and Jack Lemmon's son Chris are about the only recognizable faces here. The film-making is fairly sound from a technical perspective, but the script is too full of clichés and dead spots to translate into a great film.
We begin by watching a deer hunter get a long serrated machete stabbed into his groin and then out through his rear end by a huge, ugly maniac in an abandoned church. His hunting companion madly takes off through the forest and stumbles into a group of five young people from the city. He tries to warn them about what happened, but he is apparently either too drunk or scared to accurately spell things out. A forest ranger (Kennedy) also tries to warn the kids, but of course they don't listen. If they did, we wouldn't have our movie now, would we? Anyway, once the kids set up camp, creepy things begin to happen to them. Obviously, we are led to believe that the guy who murdered the hunter is the one tormenting the kids. A huge revelation comes about midway through about him, but anyone paying attention early on should see it coming pretty easily. Once the killer's secret is revealed the film gets kind of anti-climatic and the ending, despite a wonderfully disgusting killing, is kind of a letdown.
Just Before Dawn has nice camera work, wonderful scenery, and spooky sound effects. The film moves along rather slowly, however, and none of the young victims are that memorable. Lemmon gets some good lines, though. There is a dopey and clichéd subplot about in-breeding that isn't really necessary. Wouldn't the film have been just as scary if not even more so had we known absolutely nothing about the killer(s)? The film is worth taking a look at once. Don't expect too much gore, though. This kind of plot concept has been used numerous times before and since. And often times it has been done better.
5 of 10 stars is about as good as the Hound can give it.
We begin by watching a deer hunter get a long serrated machete stabbed into his groin and then out through his rear end by a huge, ugly maniac in an abandoned church. His hunting companion madly takes off through the forest and stumbles into a group of five young people from the city. He tries to warn them about what happened, but he is apparently either too drunk or scared to accurately spell things out. A forest ranger (Kennedy) also tries to warn the kids, but of course they don't listen. If they did, we wouldn't have our movie now, would we? Anyway, once the kids set up camp, creepy things begin to happen to them. Obviously, we are led to believe that the guy who murdered the hunter is the one tormenting the kids. A huge revelation comes about midway through about him, but anyone paying attention early on should see it coming pretty easily. Once the killer's secret is revealed the film gets kind of anti-climatic and the ending, despite a wonderfully disgusting killing, is kind of a letdown.
Just Before Dawn has nice camera work, wonderful scenery, and spooky sound effects. The film moves along rather slowly, however, and none of the young victims are that memorable. Lemmon gets some good lines, though. There is a dopey and clichéd subplot about in-breeding that isn't really necessary. Wouldn't the film have been just as scary if not even more so had we known absolutely nothing about the killer(s)? The film is worth taking a look at once. Don't expect too much gore, though. This kind of plot concept has been used numerous times before and since. And often times it has been done better.
5 of 10 stars is about as good as the Hound can give it.